Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to most types of popular Jamaican dance music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that evolved out of the earlier genres like Ska and Rocksteady.

Bob Marley is said to have claimed that the word reggae came from a Spanish term for “the king’s music”. The liner notes of To the King, a compilation of Christian gospel Reggae, suggest that the word reggae was derived from the Latin regi meaning “to the king”. The shift from Rocksteady to reggae was illustrated by the organ shuffle pioneered by Jamaican musicians like Jackie Mittoo and Winston Wright and featured in transitional singles Say What You’re Saying (1967) by Clancy Eccles and People Funny Boy (1968) by Lee “Scratch” Perry. The Pioneers’ 1968 track Long Shot (Bus’ Me Bet) has been identified as the earliest recorded example of the new rhythm sound that became known as Reggae.